I: Confounding Deities O sing the tale of boundless beings, confounding, Embodied twixt the firmament and earth, Where adamant conviction yields to artful conceit, And cosmic force ignites the hearth of thought. This tale, of deities untethered by assumption, Heralds an age where our humanity Bereft of ever-constant truth doth march, To seek elusive wisdom in the depths. II: Adrift in Apathy Long hath the known stretched naked 'fore our eyes, As sure as sun doth herald dawn's embrace, And in this certainty we sought our rest, Content to kneel at comprehending's throne. But from these imperceptible beginnings rise The sovereign race of disenthralled minds, Now cast awash in existential depths, Reigned in by naught but whimsical caprice. III: Constraint of Cosmic Destiny There once, upon infinity of space, In labyrinthine whorl and curved expanse, The op'ning bloom of words perceived the sky, In celestial branches, fates entwined. 'Twas here Poseidus, in his somber gloom, The gods' confounding, sought the secret spark, That portentous whisper cleaved the night, To bring forth wond'rous knowledge, potent dread. IV: Skepticism's Rein But dread's dread sovereign, the doubting Pontiff, swept From heart of man that primal urge to pray, That ardent hope to be held in kind, And bade forlorn humanity look deep. For 'tis in depths that futures ne'er foreseen Do manifest, unshaped by ancient writ, Unbound by consanguineous reverence, But bred of dream and wending fantasy. V: Orison of Pessimism "What hero have we," cried the jaded throng, "Within a tape-less stage of fate and time That offers naught but endless paths and wear Yet no assurance of relief or love?" No Sisyphean ritual or Hercules' dream 'vail against the fertile ground of doubt, And thus humanity doth writhe and brood Upon a cold abyss of chance, unkind. VI: The Nihilistic Art But lo, the craft-work of the mind and soul Ascends beyond the reach of meaning's grasp, And where Prometheus lifted not the fire, Therein, man finds salvation in the haze. Perchance the rational is dimmed and curt, And hope enshrouds itself in wailing gasps, Yet still our anxious hearts do soar and sway, Illumined by the haunting dance of art. VII: Embrace of Lucid Intoxication Drink deep of liquid rapture, pour the soul Unstilting onto canvas bleak and wide, As lucid intoxication frees us all, Ye, chained by reason's dismal grip and swoon. Forlorn, in earthbound, leaden-chains of truth No more! Embrace the breath of dervish flight, And weave thine own extravagant lament Upon the loom of unbecoming skies. Forsooth, this hallowed faith permits dissolution, A perchance unraveling of heart and soul, To lay wide the gates of conscious life, And steadfast tread through shifting realms, incurious.